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Educational Background

Ph.D. Washington University
M.A. Kansas State University
B.A. Northwestern Okla. State University 
A.A. Cowley County, Kansas, Community College 

Awards and Service

Assistant Dean for Faculty Recruitment, 1999-2002 
Langston Hughes Distinguished Visiting Professorship, University of Kansas, 1999 
Chair, Nominations Committee, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, 1999 
Journal of Negro History Editorial Board, 1997 
Kansas History Editorial Board, 1997-present 
Program Chair, Annual Conference, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, 1996 
Evaluation of applications for 1996-97 
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, 1995 

Books and Essays

• Booker T. Washington in American Memory, University of Illinois Press, 2017 
   
• Black Towns and Profit: Promotion and Development in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1877-1917, University of Illinois Press, 1991 
• "White Wealth and Black Repression: Blacks in Harrison County, Texas, 1865-1868," The Journal of Negro History, 1999 
• “African Americans After Reconstruction and During the Booker T. Washington Era” in The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, Library of Congress exhibit catalog, 1997 
• Introduction to The Records of The National Negro Business League, University Publications of America, 1995 
• "The Origin and Early Promotion of Nicodemus" in Nicodemus, Kansas, ed. J. Keith Everett, A.I.A. United States National Park Service, 1985

Work in Progress

I am in the process of researching for a book length study concerning African Americans living in the former Confederate States who participated in the United States Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service’s 4-H clubs. I am focusing on the years between the years of 1908 and 1945.  During those years, this United States Government sponsored organization included more boys and girls than any other formal association.  Millions of Americans affiliated with 4-H clubs, including several hundred thousand black youth and volunteers.  For over thirty years, 4-H clubs helped to shape the values, perception, aspirations, experiences of more southern black youth than any other entity.